Strategic Dynamics in the Nordic-Baltic Region: Implications for U.S. Policy

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By Charles M. Perry, Michael J. Sweeney, and Andrew C. Winner

 

In January 2000, IFPA published a Special Report entitled Strategic Dynamics in the Nordic-Baltic Region: Implications for U.S. Policy. This monograph is the culmination of an extensive research effort by IFPA analysts into the emerging regional trends and contending interests of regional powers in the strategically critical Nordic-Baltic region. Centered primarily around the question of the long-term security and stability of the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, the Special Report provides a detailed examination of the security problems faced by each of the three, and assesses in depth

current thinking in Baltic states on the evolving security environment and its implications for their national defense planning.

Beyond the specific perspectives of the three Baltic states, however, extensive attention is given to the views and interests of other key regional states, including Russia, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and other key European allies.

Finally, the study provides detailed recommendations for the future course of U.S. policy in the region with an eye towards better defining and securing key U.S. security interest in the region. Specific attention is paid in the IFPA recommendations to three main issue sets:

• How the United States can best leverage the myriad European institutional mechanisms already addressing the issue of Baltic stability and security to support its own primary security interests
• How the United States can best proceed toward Baltic membership in NATO
• How the United States should engage Russia, both on the specific issue of Baltic membership in NATO and more generally on the issue of regional security

The study is based on intensive independent research by IFPA analysts, including extended field research trips to the states of the Baltic littoral during which numerous regional officials were interviewed.